Gov. Walker was in Hudson this morning to announce that Wisconsin had wired more about $60 million to Minnesota Tuesday, clearing a tax debt.
Posted on 07/14/2011 1:58:58 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
Wisconsin paid off its $60 million debt owed to Minnesota under the former tax reciprocity agreement between the states, Gov. Scott Walker announced today.
The debt was left unpaid by the previous Wisconsin administration after former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty ended the agreement in 2009.
The agreement had allowed workers living in one state and working in the other to pay income taxes to their home state, saving taxpayers the burden of filing two tax state returns.
“It was a huge disappointment for both Minnesota and Wisconsin taxpayers when former Minnesota Gov. Pawlenty ended reciprocity last year,” said Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, a longtime advocate for maintaining the agreement. “I’m delighted that Gov. (Mark) Dayton is reaching out to Gov. Walker to re-establish tax reciprocity between the two states, something that has served both states well through the years.”
The money, which was due Dec. 1, is the final payment owed through the former income tax reciprocity agreement.
Jauch said he appreciated Dayton’s understanding of the important of the agreement for taxpayers in both states.
Since January 2010, when the 32-year agreement officially ended, workers living in one state and working in the other have been required to pay taxes to the state where they work. That means filing tax returns in two states instead of one.
If a new agreement is in place individuals will not have to file tax returns in two states, the governor said in a prepared statement.
“Three weeks ago I spoke directly with him and he is sincerely enthusiastic about having a new agreement in place once Wisconsin has paid Minnesota the money due them since January,” Jauch said.
“We want to make life easier for taxpayers and pay our bills,” Walker said. “With this payment we can continue talking with our Minnesota neighbors about restoring our reciprocity agreement. Renewing a reciprocity agreement will ease tax-filing for over 55,000 Wisconsinites and 20,000 Minnesotans.”
It’s an effort that has garnered strong support from senators representing residents on Wisconsin’s western border including Jauch, Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls, and Dan Kapanke, R-La Crosse as well as Assembly representatives in the region.
“In my very first conversation with Gov. Walker following his inauguration, I expressed concern about the lack of payment to Minnesota,” said Rep. Nick Milroy, D-South. Range. “In January of this year, I wrote the governor asking that he work with the state of Minnesota to reinstate the reciprocity agreement. I also met with legislative members on both sides of the aisle to encourage them to make it a budget priority to pay the debt owed so we could move forward with reciprocity negotiations.”
Wisconsin owed Minnesota $58.7 million, accruing interest of more than $4,000 daily after the due date; it should have been paid long ago, Milroy said.
“Now it’s time to move forward to reinstate the income tax reciprocity agreement,” Milroy said. “Wisconsin citizens that work in Minnesota should not be burdened with additional tax filing requirements that ultimately cost them time and money.”
In March, State Rep. Greg Davids, R-Preston, of southeast Minnesota and chairman of the Minnesota taxes committee, introduced a bill to restore the tax reciprocity agreement. The bill, which would require the Minnesota governor to get legislative approval before ending any future tax reciprocity agreements with Wisconsin, passed at the committee level with an amendment for a benchmark study of tax reciprocity. The study would look at the number of residents of each state with earnings in the other; income earned by residents; and the amount of money lost or gained if the agreement is reinstated. Study results are due to the Minnesota Legislature by March 1, 2013.
The study was included in the Minnesota Omnibus Bill.
Today’s payment paves the way for further talks over a new agreement, Walker said.
With the outstanding bill paid, the two states are now able to work on a new agreement that will benefit individual taxpayers and small businesses, Walker said. If a new agreement is in place individuals will not have to file tax returns in two states, the governor said.
Gov. Walker was in Hudson this morning to announce that Wisconsin had wired more about $60 million to Minnesota Tuesday, clearing a tax debt.
Republicans pay their debts, Democrats (former Gov. Doyle) don’t and leave them for others.
Go, Scott, go. Scott Walker is my hero.
I’m sure that this comes in handy in MN, since they are shut down currently.
Hypocrite Jauch fled the state to block the legislation which made this payment possible
Why did Pawlenty end the agreement?
What was the point of maintaining it if Doyle (Wisconsin) wasn't honoring it. Minnesota was sending checks to Wisconsin...and getting nothing back.
Isn't it interesting that the article didn't mention that at all -- and made Pawlenty look like the bad guy?
Why don't we give Shelley Nelson and the Superior Telegram the benefit of the doubt? They weren't indulging in bias and propaganda. They were just stupid.
The previous Governor of Wisconsin was a Democrat and not a very nice one. He probably wasn’t sending the payments required to MN. I don’t know. All I know is that he left a $60m bill owed.
My sister and her family live in the Madison area. She says that Doyle spent every bit of money that was in the Wisconsin coffers, including all the public employees’ pension money, and any other caches that were there; Doyle left behind such a fiscal mess that the usually liberal Wisconsin voters voted out most of the Democrat constitutional officers plus the Senators & House Representatives in 2010.
That is why the virtual eruption of the body politic in Madison in January-February 2011. The WI voters literally threw the crooks out of office.
All that’s true, except the Unions are having a fit about losing their favored positions. A lot of them really don’t understand the issues: if you squander all of the money, nobody is going to get paid. Now they want to recall the Sentors (R) who stayed in town and did their jobs and the Governor who put the ship of state upright again. The only ones who should lose their jobs are the Dem Senators who fled the state and stayed gone for 3 weeks so that the legislature couldn’t take a vote (quorum call).
You know this whole ‘Walker’ thing is really backfiring!
Wisconsin is:
* Paying off our debts to other states.
* People are keeping their jobs - no layoff of any great significance, save for the hard-left enclaves.
* Businesses are coming to Wisconsin again.
* No tax increases to the taxpayers.
* A balanced budget, heading toward a SURPLUS for the first time in DECADES.
* We now have CC!
* The Governor will be appointing the head of the VA and not some lefty Board of Directors.
* The Governor isn’t robbing Peter to pay Paul, or raiding any of our ‘Rainy Day’ funds.
I mean, it’s just TERRIBLE what’s happening in Wisconsin these days!!
*SMIRK*
You forgot one thing. Walker even “works across the aisle” at an interstate level. Doyle (D) refused to pay this bill and canceled the agreement with Pawlenty (R). Walker R pays up to Dayton (D) at the request of Jauch (D) and other Dems.
The scandal! /s
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